First Presbyterian Church presents mystery dinner theater
The First Presbyterian Church of Waynesburg recently held its annual mystery dinner theater, which is offered as an entertaining evening out for audience members and a mission trip fundraiser for the church.
On Saturday, Oct. 24, church members put on a production titled “No Harm, No Foul.” The three-act play focused on the parents of a youth soccer team and the surrounding circumstances that occur before the team’s championship game.
Normally, the content of the annual dinner theater plays are selected from Christian drama publishers and internet sources, but according to Kathie Bortz, the director of the play, this year’s comedy spoof production was written by the church’s Director of Music, Tome Custer.
The production was split into three main sections, with the final act being a bit different than the two preceding it.
The first scene set the stage of a youth soccer team preparing for a championship game.
The team’s coach is concerned about the behavior of the kids, while the parents are arguing amongst themselves for various reasons ranging from their kids’ behavior to being underappreciated and even bringing a parent of an opposing team’s player into the argument. The act ends on the sudden note of the coach’s playbook going missing – apparently due to a theft.
In the second act, the parents begin accusing one other. Eventually a local reporter – who is a friend of one of the parents and covering the soccer games – is called in to help them solve the mystery of the playbook’s disappearance.
The third scene featured all of the characters examining each other’s motives for committing the theft. Following the characters’ own cross-examining, the production took an interactive turn.
Custer, who played the character of the reporter, left the stage to travel throughout the audience, asking those in attendance for their thoughts on who was the culprit of the onstage theft.
Once Custer returns to the stage, the accusations continue to fly until the culprit reveals herself.
The coach admits to taking her own playbook because everything had become about winning rather than having fun and respecting the game.
She quoted Matthew 6:19 – “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth” – as her reasoning for focusing on sportsmanship over trophies. The play then ended with a message on forgiveness.
The annual dinner theater show serves as a church fundraiser for different mission trips every year, and according to Bortz, this year’s production marks the eleventh or twelfth year the church has held this event.
“What we raise here [from the dinner theater] is used to send adults and youth on mission trips within the United States and internationally as well,” said Bortz. “This past June we went to the Dominican Republic, and in January we have about 12 men going back.”
Auditions for the production were held in late August, said Bortz, while rehearsals began in September around Labor Day.
This year, several regular cast members were mixed in with a few new – and perhaps unsuspecting – faces.
“We have several people who are pretty much in it every year, and then it seems like every year we bring in a couple new ones,” said Bortz. “Our crisis this year was that one of our main characters who is in it every year, and who is my comedian, because of his job he was sent out of town. Tuesday night we had to draft [another actor] in, and he’s [had] to learn it in three days.”
The audience capacity for the event was a full audience of around 100 people, with most of the $25 tickets bought in advance, said Bortz.
Hors d’oeuvres were served beginning at 6:30 p.m., and the theater production and dinner started at 7 p.m.
The dinner included beef stroganoff and egg noodles, broccoli florets, garden salads, dinner rolls and an apple crunch dessert.